


What Goes Around...

by Rose_of_Pollux



Series: Inktober for Writers 2018: Hurt/Comfort edition [20]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-05 00:38:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16357274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rose_of_Pollux/pseuds/Rose_of_Pollux
Summary: Part 1 of 2.  Though the Summit Five Affair is behind them, Strothers’s former partner, aiming to replace Beldon, is determined to make Napoleon pay for discrediting Strothers.





	What Goes Around...

Napoleon was charismatic and charming—being able to get people to like him was second nature to him. While people would be wary of Illya, who presented himself deliberately as cold and aloof, Napoleon never faced any of that.

But the Summit Five Affair had changed things—changed how people looked at Napoleon. Accused of being a traitor—and tortured until he confessed, the fair-weathered crowd had begun to see Napoleon in a different light. Even when the true traitor had been eliminated and Napoleon’s name cleared, it only slightly reduced the whispers and pointing when he and Illya had returned to New York.

That was the extent of most of it, however; Napoleon didn’t pay much attention to that, anyway, just like how Illya had been ignoring his detractors all this time, as well. And, overall, it didn’t seem to bother him; he had Illya’s support through the whole thing, and that was all that mattered.

But old wounds were reopened, however, several weeks later, when a visitor from U.N.C.L.E. Berlin had arrived for a meeting with Waverly, as he had applied to take over Harry Beldon’s position as the head of the Berlin branch, and had to meet with the other four U.N.C.L.E. heads individually for an interview, who would then discuss on whether or not he would be accepted as the fifth member of the Summit Five. He had passed his other three interviews, and only needed to complete the one with Waverly.

What no one had realized at the time was that the man had been Strothers’s partner, and subsequently his very close friend—he had been out of town during the entire fiasco with Strothers and Beldon, and had only come back for the figurative (and literal, in the case of Beldon) post-mortem—that his partner had been unceremoniously sacked after allegedly torturing an apparently innocent agent from the American branch.

He didn’t buy this—as far as he was concerned, Strothers had been innocent, and the smug American agent had to have been guilty after all, but succeeded in worming his way out of things. He got the name he had been searching for—Napoleon Solo—and kept this information to himself as he headed to New York for his final interview.

Strothers’s former partner was more than a bit confident about getting accepted as Beldon’s replacement, and so, on his way to meet with Waverly, found Napoleon in the hall and dragged him to the nearest dimly-lit room.

“Just listen to me now, Solo,” he hissed. “I don’t care if you were found innocent or not; when I become head of U.N.C.L.E. Berlin, I will see to it that you are ousted from your position with as much pain and humiliation as I can see you get!”

He left immediately, and Napoleon stood in stunned confusion—so stunned, that he was completely unaware that the dimly-lit room that the unpleasant fellow had dragged him to was none other than the U.N.C.L.E. autopsy room, and that Illya had been putting things away in a darkened corner of the room—and had heard and seen the entire thing.

As Napoleon left the room, still looking stunned, it was clear to Illya that Napoleon would not be likely to inform Waverly.

He would take it upon himself, for no one—but no one--threatened Napoleon Solo in his presence and got away with it.


End file.
